INDIANAPOLIS — Ryan Kelly isn’t a fan of the NFL potentially moving to an 18-game regular season. The Colts’ center and longest-tenured player, who is a vice president on the NFLPA’s executive committee, sounded off Wednesday on the possibility of the league adding another game to its regular-season calendar.
“Yeah, 18 games sounds great when Roger (Goodell) is saying it on Pat McAfee’s (show),” Kelly said of the NFL commissioner. “But until you’re the one going out there and putting a helmet on for 18 of those games, yeah, then come talk to me.”
"I think we're good at 17 (games) now, but… I'm not a fan of the preseason… I'd rather replace a preseason game with a regular-season any day… If we got to 18 (regular season) and 2 (preseason), that's not an unreasonable thing." – Roger Goodell pic.twitter.com/4QxyVGppMq
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 26, 2024
Kelly is preparing for his ninth season with the Colts. The veteran has been the Colts’ NFLPA representative since 2020, and he’s been a member of the executive committee since 2022. After being involved in NFLPA negotiations over the years, Kelly thinks it would be naïve to think the league commissioner floated the idea for an 18-game season on a whim.
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“I think we’re good at 17 now, but listen, we’re looking at how we continue,” Goodell said during a live taping of the Pat McAfee Show at the NFL Draft in April. “I’m not a fan of the preseason. I don’t think we need three preseason games. I don’t buy it, and I don’t think (fans) like it either. … But the reality is, I’d rather replace a preseason game with a regular-season (game) any day. That’s just picking quality.”
Kelly pushed back on Goodell’s stance, stating that the preseason was an opportunity for late-round draft picks, undrafted prospects and other under-the-radar players to compete for roster spots. He also mentioned “all of the injuries” players go through during a 17-game season that fans wouldn’t understand.
“They don’t know what it takes to play on Sundays,” Kelly said. “I think it’s just too many games.”
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Although the current collective bargaining agreement doesn’t expire until after the 2030 season, a change in the schedule is still possible. The NFL moved from a 16-game schedule to 17 games starting in 2021, with 51.5 percent of players voting in favor of the increase.
Kelly said the No. 1 factor in an 18th game is money, and, better yet, who gets the biggest piece of the pie. As it stands now, players currently collect around 48.5 percent of the NFL’s revenue share, compared to around 51.5 percent for the owners, according to the NFLPA.
“If they said, ‘You guys get 70 percent of revenue, and we’ll take 30 as owners,’ I think a lot of guys would sign up for that, you know?” Kelly said. “You’d make a $100 million (per year) playing quarterback. I think everybody’s got a line to draw in the sand, and we’ll see where that is.”
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Kelly was asked if adding a second bye week would bring him on board with an 18-game season, and he again said he’s “absolutely” against an increase. But if a change were to come, owners would need to make concessions as well. One that’s already being discussed by the NFLPA would be changing the offseason schedule to eliminate spring ball and replace it with players having to report for a ramp-up period in June before beginning training camp in July.
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Kelly explained that the goal there would be to have players come together once and gradually increase their workload, instead of ramping up during spring ball only to break up and do it all over again several weeks later. That schedule would be extremely tough on coaches and team staffers, though Kelly made it clear that everyone would need to sacrifice something, especially if an 18th game is on the horizon.
“Give us a 50/50 share,” Kelly said. “Guys talk about lifetime coverage. No insurance company will ever write that policy.
“There’s gonna be some back and forth, and I don’t think it’s gonna be a perfect solution.”
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(Photo: Michael Hickey / Getty Images)
